User experience of industrial robots over time

This paper reports about a User Experience (UX) study on industrial robotic arms in the context of a semiconductor factory cleanroom. The goal was to find out (1) if there is a difference in the UX between robots used over years with a strict security perimeter (robot A) and a newly installed robot without security perimeter (robot B), and (2) if the UX ratings of the new robot change over time. Therefore, a UX questionnaire was developed and handed out to the operators working with these robots. The first survey was conducted one week after the deployment of robot B (n=23), the second survey (n=21) six months later. Thereby, we found that time is crucial for experiencing human-robot interaction. Our results showed an improvement between the first and second measurement of UX regarding robot B. Although robot A was significantly better rated than robot B in terms of usability, general UX, cooperation, and stress, we assume that the differences in UX will decrease gradually with prolonged interaction.